Forestrike review: it trained me to become an incredible pixelated fighter

It took me a long time to become even halfway decent at Forestrike. The martial arts action game, from Olija developer Skeleton Crew, has a unique twist in that it lets you see what will happen in most battles and then practice your strategy accordingly. It turns the act of combat into a type of puzzle game, but one that still requires fast reflexes and precision decision-making to be successful. And it has successfully turned me into a solid fighter — at least in the realm of a pixelated video game.

You play as a martial arts student named Yu, who, despite being relatively green, is tasked with ridding his homeland of an evil empire. To do this, you mostly travel across the landscape beating up bad guys. Forestrike has a roguelite structure, meaning that each time you play the levels and scenarios change slightly, and also that you’re going to lose a lot. But that losing is also inherent to the premise: This is a game about constantly learning. Along the way you’re accompanied by various martial arts masters who will teach you new techniques to aid in your quest.

Central to all of this is an ability known as foresight. In essence, this lets you preview a battle before you go in for the real thing. It’s like a practice run; you can see how things will play out and practice your strategy in advance. Battles in Forestrike are fast, usually lasting just a few seconds, but like a great martial arts movie, they involve a carefully orchestrated series of movements. Foresight lets you figure out exactly how you want to proceed before you’re actually in danger.

This doesn’t mean that Forestrike is easy. Early on, I got my ass kicked regularly. Even when you know exactly when you should dodge, or pick up a weapon, or use a slow but powerful kick, it’s still a challenge to nail it when it counts, no matter how much you train. The game also constantly throws different challenges at you; sometimes you can only use foresight a limited number of times in a battle, other times not at all.

Foresight is not a crutch to make the game less challenging, but more of a tool to sharpen your skills. It’s like tossing some warm-up shots before an actual basketball game. Those challenges help keep the game fresh even as many of the battles can be pretty similar. The same goes for its structure, which lets you regularly unlock new skills for each run and eventually meet new martial arts masters who will each teach you new techniques, giving you even more options.

Eventually, things started to click. And when you do eventually pull off a flawless run through a big group of enemies it feels incredible, like you’re really in a classic action movie, pulling the strings. But those few seconds of perfection involve a whole lot of practice.

_{Forestrike is available now on Steam, and is “coming soon” to the Nintendo Switch.}